pleasance

plural pleasances · alternative plaisance · alternative plaisaunce · alternative pleasaunce

1. countableuncountableA pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water; a secluded part of a garden.First known use 16th c.

   the pleasances of old Elizabethan houses

   1859, John Ruskin, The Two Paths

   1 more example

   It is a tropical pleasance, washed by a noble river.

   1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms: pleasure garden

2. countableobsoleteuncountableWillingness to please, or the action of pleasing; courtesy.First known use 14th–17th c.
3. countableobsoleteuncountableThe feeling of being pleased; pleasure, delight.First known use 14th–19th c.

   Now ſtands the Brere like a Loꝛd alone, / Puffed vp with pꝛyde and vaine pleaſaunce: […]

   1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Februarie. Ægloga Secunda.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 6, verso

1. A female given name from French.

   Similarly, the verse at the close of Through the Looking Glass is an acrostic for Alice Pleasance Liddell.

   2008, Sherry L. Ackerman, Behind the Looking Glass, page 32

2. A surname transferred from the given name.